Sanders Sides BROTP One-Shots: EXPLAINED

Chapters 11-19: Sleep-Walking

BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUP! WE ARE DOING THIS! MY LONGEST STORY TO DATE! GET READY TO LEARN Y'ALL!!! SPOILER ALERT...OBVIOUSLY!!!

A Little Background:

This is a point that will be elaborated on extensively later...but, I almost drove myself into insanity writing Sleep-Walking, and I wish I could say that was an understatement. This story is so long, underwent so many rewrites, edits, and decisions...the majority of which was done in ONE MONTH! That being said, I will get into the details of what I think of the story, and what the writing / editing processes did to me, and my friend Jay (who I mentioned previously) as we go.

Other than that, let's start with the original decision I gave to you guys. I asked across all of my platforms, if you wanted Sleep-Walking to be uploaded as a single story or in chapters, and you all chose chapters. (This is actually a decision I was glad about.) That being said the story itself was originally written, and meant to be read as a singular, stand-alone story...which has been uploaded as such in a separate book on my page! (Shameless promotion!)

As you have more than likely already guessed, Sleep-Walking is the story that, (to the present day) underwent the highest number of rewrites. The original draft of this story, (which was only the first half) was started around the same time as Saddened Patton. Now, here is where things start to become tricky: so, I will begin with this. It is important to note, that since Sleep-Walking got its start so early, it actually takes place much earlier in the timeline than a lot of my other stories...let me explain.

· I Will Physically Fight You was obviously written closely following the upload of the Fitting In video.

· Saddened Patton on the other hand took place between Accepting Anxiety and Fitting In, which means that Sleep-Walking does as well.

That being said, since it is fitted so weirdly into the timeline, that is where Virgil's motivation comes from, and why he still felt so out of place at the beginning of the story itself. Now, to make that fit in better with the timeline, I carry that same motivation forward in some of the stories posted after Sleep-Walking.

· It is also important to note that later edits, many things were added in to update the story so-to-speak.

Inspiration:

Holy...where to begin? The explanation for the inspiration of Sleep-Walking is hard to single out, seeing as it developed over time. I wanted Virgil to have more than just his redemption, but I also wanted to explore sides to these characters (no pun intended) that I had not seen anyone else work with, nor had I explored myself. In a previous chapter I talked about strenuous situations being used to further explore character development, and that was really what I wanted here. And for the First Draft, that was really all I had...but that leads me to the extremely lengthy explanation for the Final Draft. (I want to clarify, that by Final Draft, I mean the ideas which were put into the version of the story which would eventually be posted.)

Back on topic; after a year of thinking that this story would never see the light of day, I decided to pick it up again. (Oh boy does that lead into some horror stories later...) Anyway, I still wanted to include everything from the First Draft, but now having a better handle on the characters, I realized that Virgil would not just be content pointing out the fears that the others had, actually he would more than likely assume the others would think down of him if he were to do that. That is where the inspiration for the latter half of Sleep-Walking comes from.

When I come right out and say this, it may be a tad shocking...until I was well into writing the Final Draft (we are talking , I was nearly ready to upload the story) I realized that I wanted Virgil to act as a counselor figure. Having gone through many years of and still being in counseling was where the idea came from to end up using those techniques. (I will explain more on this later.) You need to know this however, in the writing process as a whole (which I will sort of create a timeline later) you will come to realize how last minute those additions were.